Posts of the week 2

Phew, made it to the second week of Friday roundups! Except that it's Saturday - oh well, near enough. A lot caught my eye in the past seven days, so here they are in the order I spotted them.

Black History Month is coming up in October. You might find useful titles scattered through Strathclyde University's Children's Booklists page - see the lists on Diversity, Global Citizenship, Refugees and Slavery.

Lizzy Ratner asks in The Nation "What are children's books for?" She's inspired by an exhibition at New York Public Library on the history of children's books. It runs till March 2014, but I don't think I can contrive to be in New York before then, wonderful though that would be.

Malorie Blackman's piece in the Guardian on the value of libraries has been widely circulated on social media so you might have seen it. Libraries' huge contribution to children's literacy is threatened by swingeing cuts across the country. "Where is the outrage?" she asks.

Vivienne Smith at Reading Fictions pays tribute to Margaret Mahy (1936-2011) with particular reference to a title I heartily approve of, The Librarian and the Robbers, concluding "If you aspire to a life full of unexpected exploits and all things delightful, become a reader! Treasure awaits us all on the shelves of the library." Hear, hear!

I've discovered that Seven Stories now has an online Enid Blyton exhibition, with one on Judith Kerr coming soon. For those of us who can't get to Newcastle to see their exhibitions live, this is a great new idea.

I've added Rhino Reads to my RSS feed of useful blogs to follow. It was the post I've linked to on gender non-specific characters that I first noticed, but it all looks worth a read if you are interested in picture books.

UKLA (UK Literacy Association) has announced its 2014 children's book awards longlists - for ages 3-6, 7-11 and 12-16+. The winners will be announced in July.

A bit of fluff to finish with. Regular readers will know of my love for Anne of Green Gables. Green Wedding Shoes offers an Anne of Green Gables Wedding Inspiration (posed) with "Anne" and "Gilbert" looking divine. So if you're a red-haired woman thinking of getting married it could be just the thing for you.

That's the end of this week's Children's Literature Roundup. No extra charge for the wedding advice.

Support Seven Stories

Seven Stories is an amazing place for anyone interested in children's books and I've written about it several times before, most recently a couple of months ago when it was awarded the right to call itself "National". It's based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city which has become notorious for its proposals to withdraw all the funding it gives to cultural organisations. You can find details on the Seven Stories site about how this will affect the Centre along with an email address and a suggested text for responding to the Council's consultation exercise - this ends on 1st February, so there's not much time left. Newcastle is also proposing to close several of its branch libraries, including the one I used when I was growing up, so I've written today about both things. If you are interested, you can read my letter with my reasons for protesting over on my library blog.

Congratulations Seven Stories: National Centre for Children's Books

I've blogged before about Seven Stories, the fabulous Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Well, now it is officially the National Centre for Children's Books. I congratulate the centre on its accreditation and urge you to visit if you are ever in the area. If you can't do that, check out its website - it's the next best thing!

Jacqueline Wilson Festival

There's a Jacqueline Wilson Festival tomorrow (Tuesday 18th) and Wednesday 19th October 2011. It’s taking place in Preston, Lancashire, organised by Askews & Holts Library Services and the University of Central Lancashire, and runs from 4pm to 6.30pm. However, you can attend online. Log in on the day, type your name into the ‘guest’ box and select ‘enter room’ to join in.

There's also a Jacqueline Wilson exhibition on at Seven Stories in Newcastle right now. If you can't make it down to Newcastle, you can see some information about it on the Seven Stories site and read a couple of first-hand accounts of the opening from Bookwitch and Lynne Rickards. There's also more on Achockablog and the BBC.

The usual plug for our own services - you can borrow all Jacqueline's books, and books about her, from us: full list here. They're a good read.

Seven Stories' Enid Blyton collection online

Seven Stories, the fabulous centre for children's books in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, announced on Twitter this afternoon (@7stories) that the catalogue of its Enid Blyton collection is now available to view online. Go to this link and type EB into the box marked Reference - many of the entries have thumbnails of the manuscripts to look at. Follow progress on their Enid Blyton blog.

Philip Pullman's not so dark materials

Philip Pullman was in the news a couple of weeks ago for his impassioned speech in support of public libraries. If the only other thing you know about him is that he is the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, why not check out the excellent Seven Stories site? Seven Stories is the centre for children's books based in Newcastle, so you might not be able to visit, but more and more of its archives are available online, including a lot of material on Philip Pullman. His page has information about him and 37 scanned pages of handwritten notes he made while writing his books, including a list of all the symbols on Lyra's alethiometer. Other authors to get similar treatment include David Almond and Judith Kerr. Her archives are even more fascinating and include remnants from her childhood such as the book she made for her grandmother's 60th birthday and pages from an album of drawings she made as a teenager. Before long, Enid Blyton material will be up there too. An amazing site!

Eleanor Farjeon Award goes to Seven Stories

Seven Stories - the Centre for Children's Books based in Newcastle - was last night awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award 2010. The Award is made for distinguished service to the world of children's books and will be given to a person or an organisation whose commitment and contribution is deemed to be outstanding. Here's a picture of staff receiving the (very well deserved) Award. I've blogged about Seven Stories before, most recently in October about their acquisition of papers on Enid Blyton. If you are ever in the North East of England, it is well worth a visit, whether or not you have small children in tow (nice cafe too!)

Should kids still be reading Enid Blyton?

I devoured just about every Enid Blyton when I was a child, but even then I was aware they were slightly frowned upon - although I maintain they never did me any harm. However, they aren't considered literary, therefore we don't stock them in this library (though we have books about Blyton if you are interested.) Anyway, today I came across two pieces of Enid Blyton news. First of all I read Feminism and the Famous Five on the blog I was a teenage book geek. I follow quite a few children's literature blogs, but have only recently discovered this one. It's author, Lauren, maintains "My reading age is stuck at sixteen. And I like it that way." Lauren, whose mother disapproved of Blyton because of negative gender stereotypes, read them in secret as a child and recently she has re-read Five on a Treasure Island. While agreeing with her mother's opinion, she argues that the book reflects the culture of its times and, in fact, the character of George could be regarded as something of a feminist icon.

The other piece of news is that Seven Stories (the Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle) has recently acquired several original Blyton typescripts and staff are busily cataloguing the collection with a view to putting it on exhibition. In the meantime, you can follow progress on their Blyton blog. I've written posts about this fantastic museum before, and if you ever do find yourself in the North East of England it's well worth a visit.

Coming soon...

Some events coming up:

Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle, has a Judith Kerr retrospective starting this month. In 2008, Kerr deposited an extensive collection of work with the centre, including finished artwork for The tiger who came to tea, all the Mog books and the line drawings for When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit.

Nearer to home, the Scottish Storytelling Centre is organising Tell-a-Story Day on 30th October. To take part in your school or other organisation, contact them for advice, inspiration and resources. See also our own page on storytelling.

Seven Stories

Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books, is the only exhibition space in the UK dedicated to the celebration of British children's literature. It's in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and well worth a vist if you are ever in that area, as I was last autumn. The main exhibition was "We're going on a bear hunt - picture book adventures", in which ten titles were recreated, almost as stage sets. You could actually step into the room with the Large family from Jill Murphy's Five Minutes' Peace, or go on the titular bear hunt with Michael Rosen. Coming up next month is an exhibition based round Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry books which should prove equally fascinating.

The Centre also has an academic purpose, maintaining an extensive collection of artwork and archives from leading authors and illustrators, such as Philip Pullman and Shirley Hughes, which shows the creative process behind children's books. In November 2007, the Collection webpages were launched - click on the link above, then choose the Collection tab on the home page. This gives access to a catalogue of holdings, sometimes with images of the item, detailed biographical information about the authors, a section on hilghlights of the Collection and an interactive game, Browser's Quest. Happy hunting!